James Maidment

James Maidment (1793 in London – 1879 in Edinburgh) was a British antiquary and collector. He passed through Edinburgh University to the Scottish bar, and was chief authority on genealogical cases.

Maidment's hobby was the collection of literary rarities. He edited and published editions of ancient literary remains including A Book of Scottish Pasquils, 1568-1715, a selection from the papers of the family of Boyd of Kilmarnock from the 16th and 17th centuries, state papers and miscellaneous correspondence of Thomas, Baron Melros (from the 17th century), letters and state papers during the reign of King James the Sixth, chiefly from the manuscript collections of Sir James Balfour of Denmylne, constitutions, charters etc. of the nunnery of Sciennes, 1512–88, and Scottish Ballads and Songs: Historical and Traditionary.

Maidment was also a poet and a friend of Sir Walter Scott. A collection of his poems is held at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas.

He was born in London about 1795; his father was a solicitor. Called to the Scottish bar in 1817, he soon took a high position as an advocate in cases involving genealogical inquiry, and was much involved in disputed peerage cases. He lived at 25 Royal Crescent on the northern edge of the Second New Town in Edinburgh.

He died in Edinburgh, 24 October 1879, and was buried in the Dean cemetery. He was an extensive collector, and the sale, in May 1880, of his library occupied fifteen days.

Maidment showed an early taste for antiquarian and historical research, and he became friends with Sir Walter Scott, Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, and other men of letters. His publications were very numerous, though many were anonymous, and several were privately printed in small editions. He published generally with John Stevenson and his son Thomas George Stevenson. He edited works for the Bannatyne, Maitland, Abbotsford, and Hunterian Clubs, and for the Spottiswoode Society; and he was the main editor of John Kay's Edinburgh Portraits, 2 vols. 1837. One of his major works is the Dramatists of the Restoration,’ 14 vols. Edinburgh, 1877, in the editorship of which he was assisted by William Hugh Logan.

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